Organic & Sustainable Dairy Farms Directory

Organic & Sustainable Dairy

Dairy is one of the fastest-growing segments in the organics industry. Critics of conventional dairy production point to crowded farms, antibiotic use, and pesticide residues from feed. However, antibiotics are strictly prohibited from both conventional and organic dairy products, and samples are regularly tested to check for antibiotic residues. Most pesticide residues are metabolites of long-banned, persistent pesticides, and so even organic products are not exempt here. This is a case where focusing on milk, butter, and cheese from small operations, rather than factory farms, makes more impact health-wise and environmentally. This may have more value in the West, where factory farms supply much of the dairy to congested urban areas, in contrast to other areas of the country which are often served by cooperatives of small farms where farmers care for their animals well.